The present invention relates to a medicine package conveying apparatus for conveying a medicine package in which medicine is packed by a medicine packing apparatus.
Conventionally, a belt-like medicine package in which medicine is packed by a medicine packing apparatus is conveyed by, for example, a conveyance apparatus described below from a lower position to a higher position.
There is known a conveying apparatus in which a pair of fiat belts, which run on a plurality of rollers, is positioned to form a conveyance passage for the medicine package with a predetermined distance and a tension unit is provided so as to adjust the tension acting on the flat belts (for example, see Japanese patent No. 2538350).
There is also a known package discharging, guiding and conveying apparatus in which a package guided into an insert hole by package guiding and traveling means is sandwiched between conveyance belts and conveyed as the conveyance belts are maintained in a strained state by a press roller provided on a tension arm (for example, see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. H05-132008).
In the apparatuses described above, the medicine package is sandwiched between the belts having a constant gap and conveyed. When the medicine package contains a large amount of medicine it can bulk up, and cause the problems of clogging, tearing of the medicine package and so on.
In the case in which a medicine capsule is contained in a package as shown in FIG. 10, the capsule may be packed in a state standing in a direction of thickness of the medicine package so that the package bulks up. This causes a problem in that the medicine package cannot be smoothly conveyed.